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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29274825">Witness</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fadesintothewest/pseuds/Fadesintothewest'>Fadesintothewest</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works &amp; Related Fandoms, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, True Love, msv2021</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 03:53:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,064</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29274825</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fadesintothewest/pseuds/Fadesintothewest</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A young maiden of Tirion witnesses the love that is between Maedhros and Fingon through the ages. Written for MSV 2021. The request was for "Something happy for these characters". I hope this satisfies your request!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Fingon | Findekáno &amp; Maedhros | Maitimo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>2021 My Slashy Valentine</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Witness</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elvewen/gifts">Elvewen</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The young maiden watched Nolofinwë’s eldest from afar. She stood half way up the grand stairway that encircled the dance floor. His hair, black like those places light does not reach. Though this assessment was not fair, either. She frowned. His hair was lustrous, a beautiful compliment to his golden skin unlike the snow kissed paleness of his sister. He whirled about the dance floor, gallantly offering a hand to maidens who stood in wait to dance with him. He was always chivalrous, offering his beautiful smile, but the young maiden noticed it wasn’t <em>that one</em>, the special smile, the big one that brightened his face with pure joy. Findekáno was always joyful and kind. She sighed. She could go on with her adoration of the Prince. Surely he would stop dancing as soon as his red-haired cousin made his way towards the dance floor. The beautiful, eldest son of Fëanáro didn’t take up too much room on the dance floor, though he did his duty as well, choosing to offer his ear to the many nobles that wanted to speak with him.</p><p> </p><p>The young maiden was not unlearned, wiser than most, to be sure. She smiled to herself watching  Findekáno and Nelyafinwë do what was typical of them, but she knew it was no mere matter of personality, as many chalked it up to. She noticed how, after dancing and after quiet discussions with the nobles of Tirion, Findekáno and Nelyafinwë would meet up and exchange whatever they learned, putting together a more accurate picture of the goings on in Tirion and abroad. From the nobles they’d gather what was desired and from the lips of siblings and children they’d learn the more intimate details. Findekáno had a knack with pulling out what should be knowledge only for the intimacy of family. His flirting and smiling was perfected for this task.</p><p> </p><p>The young maiden smiled. She wasn’t from an important family. She had no reason to dance with Findekáno. Such was the state of Noldorin social stratification: their society was quite regimented, favoring tradition and lineage. At least the Noldor also held innovators and creators in high regard for the skill of their craft, but if they were not of noble houses, their journeys into the circles of power took much more time and perseverance. The dance floor was an etiquette of station with the principle families occupying the center, noble families spiraling out by rank, and the working tradespeople of Tirion dancing at the outer edges. The young maiden’s family occupied these outer edges. She cared little for the machinations of advancing within the circle, so to speak; thus she occupied her time watching, observing the goings on of the life in Tirion around her.</p><p> </p><p>They were certainly beautiful, the eldest children of the Princes of Tirion, but they lived in an entirely different world than she did. “Laica,” a voice behind the young maiden interrupted. Laica turned and saw her friend Nindiel impatiently waiting for her friend to come back to the dance floor. “Come back with me please! I cannot tolerate another request from that oaf!”</p><p> </p><p>Laica laughed at her friends predicament. She did not feel sorry for her. “Why do you accept an invitation to dance with him if you care for him so little?” Laica pointed out to her friend.</p><p> </p><p>“C-o-u-r-t-e-s-y!” Nindiel drew out the word, surprised that Laica did not understand this common etiquette.  Nindiel followed Laica’s eyesight down below. “Lord Findekáno is a sight to behold but you waste your time coveting him from afar. It gains you nothing,” Nindiel chided her friend.</p><p> </p><p>Laica pretended great offense. “Is it not enough I can look upon his beauty?” She looked back down at the dance floor. “And besides, it is always two for one with Lord Nolofinwë’s son.”</p><p> </p><p>“Two for one?”</p><p> </p><p>Laica turned to look at her friend, “Aye! Where Lord Findekáno goes, comes Lord Nelyafinwë. My eyes burst with the beauty before me, oh but I love this unfettered desire!”</p><p> </p><p>“I do not understand you,” Nindiel answered, drawing Laica’s hand into hers. “How can it be a happiness to pine after elves that will never acknowledge you?”</p><p> </p><p>Laica laughed. “Because I will never have to deal with rejection, never have to deal with disappointment. It’s all up here,” Laica pointed to her head. “All that I want and know I want.”</p><p> </p><p>“Foolishness,” Nindiel rolled her eyes at her friends customary whimsy. “You know not what it means to even kiss! How can you imagine it if you do not even know it?”</p><p> </p><p>Laica laughed more fully. “You got me, but that is the fun of it.”</p><p> </p><p>The two talked, making their way down to the floor, but this time Nindiel was not disappointed. A more agreeable elf asked her to dance. Laica was once more alone, but more annoyed because she was in the midst of the throng of elves socializing around the dance floor. Laica looked for her golden prince and found him standing next to the dazzling Nelyafinwë, caught up in deep conversation.</p><p> </p><p>Laica stomped her foot on the floor. What did Nindiel know herself? Laica found a discrete corner to watch undisturbed. Nindiel could not know that Laica’s fantasies were firmly located in the middle of the intimate spaces between Findekáno and Nelyafinwë. She wanted to be the energy caught between their eyes as they looked upon one another. They were cousins of course, knew each other well, and Laica longed for that intimacy. To know another so completely as the two cousins seemed to know one another. It was the way Nelyafinwë would tilt his head to one side and both he and Findekáno would watch the goings on around them and speak in hushed tones to each other. Findekáno was the only one who could make Nelyafinwë radiate just so. Every so often Nelyafinwë would incline his head and whisper something to his cousin that would cause Findekáno to blush most curiously. Surely Nelyafinwë was teasing his younger cousin about the attention young, eager maidens laid at his feet. This had been Nelyafinwë’s predicament when he was Findekáno’s age.</p><p> </p><p>Sometimes there would be no words between them. It was in these times that Laica wanted to turn away from what she witnessed, but could not. She was drawn to that space between them. It was quietness that held something, like a secret and something precious, all at once.  Matter seemed to stop in the space between them, such was the intensity of silence between them. If she was lucky she’d catch them glance surreptitiously at one another, a glance so disarming her breath would catch in her throat. How could she explain to Nindiel that this is what she dreamed of, of spaces in between, of furtive, stolen glances, a sensation she would come to understand as something fugitive. After all, neither Findekáno nor Nelyafinwë were betrothed nor were they known to be too serious with anyone, though some said Findekáno had a relationship with a Vanyarin maiden he would travel to see. It didn’t matter to Laica. She did not need her fantasies to materialize. It was enough that she could imagine them, indeed write them. That was enough for her.</p><p> </p><p>*~*~*~*~*~</p><p> </p><p>“You danced with Antarion’s daughter for more than one selection. You will get tongues wagging you know,” Maitimo warned his younger cousin.</p><p> </p><p>“She’s tolerable don’t you know,” Findekáno answered, nonplussed by his cousin’s teasing</p><p> </p><p>“Oh Findekáno!” Maitimo scoffed, “How crude! Imagine if you heard someone speaking of you this way!”</p><p> </p><p>Maitimo and Findekáno fell into their typical banter, meant for those around them to hear. Better they be gossiped about as petulant princes than competent men of their fathers and the King.</p><p> </p><p>Findekáno replied, “Those that know me like your brothers say I’m intolerable and those that don’t will let me spit in their face if only to be in my good graces.” Findekáno drank his wine slowly watching the crowd spin in the traditional Noldorin dances of the season.</p><p> </p><p>Maitimo surveyed the same mundane scenes. “Better you than me. I grow tired of the social season. I do not know if I will return after this one ends.” Maitimo had been saying this for the last three seasons. This would be the last time he would say it. Noldorin nobles were not brutes and would catch on to the Princes’ reconnaissance during these events.</p><p> </p><p>“I do like dancing Nelyo, I do indeed,” Findekáno sighed earnestly.</p><p> </p><p>Looking at the crowds, Maitimo whispered, “You do it so well.”</p><p> </p><p>Findekáno looked to Maitimo, catching the grey of his eyes, complemented by the deep, dark red of his hair. “I will retire to grandfather’s gardens. I am in need of quiet.”</p><p> </p><p>Maitimo glanced at Findekáno, catching the blue of his eyes, made brighter by the honey of his skin and the black of his hair that fell like silk to his waste. “We shall retire there. I too will welcome the quiet to hear my thoughts.”</p><p> </p><p>Maitimo and Findekáno turned and walked towards the interior of the palace, passing the threshold outsiders couldn’t cross. An elf appeared. Maitimo spoke to him. “A bottle of the wine from the Lonely Isle and some cheeses of your choosing in the King’s garden.”</p><p> </p><p>“Very well sir,” the elf responded, quietly disappearing to fetch his lord’s desires.</p><p> </p><p>Findekáno dared brush a finger against Maitimo’s hand. Findekáno spoke his passion, in between words, in the sensation of matter, aware that his feelings were forbidden. “It is a wonder that such a small thing contains fires that could devour me whole.”</p><p> </p><p>Maitimo swallowed thickly. “I imagine it like being dropped in a vat of Laurelin’s light. I think I would instantly turn to ashes.”</p><p> </p><p>“Such a thought,” Findekáno breathed, “to be so utterly consumed.”</p><p> </p><p>The two came into the garden. The wine was set out in a basket with glasses and a tray of cheeses and fruits on a blanket. Maitimo smiled. “Now I will be doing some consuming,” Maitimo teased sitting on the blanket and reaching for the cheese.</p><p> </p><p>Findekáno filled their glasses and offered one to Maitimo. The two sat silently for a while drinking and eating. Observing the stain of wine on Maitimo’s lips, Findekáno spoke, “Tell me, does its flavor reach every part of your tongue?” </p><p> </p><p>Maitimo savored the wine, responding softly, “Indeed. If only you could taste what I do.”</p><p> </p><p>“I think I just might know a way,” Findekáno teased.</p><p> </p><p>Maitimo devoured Findekáno with his eyes. “Show me,” he commanded.</p><p> </p><p>Findekáno set aside his glass and pulled Maitimo from the back of his neck into a firm and searching kiss, tasting all of him.</p><p> </p><p>Maitimo pulled away abruptly, growling softly. “I will utterly consume you, dissolve your very being and leave nothing of you.”</p><p> </p><p>Findekáno’s eyes were black with arousal. “Destroy me and leave nothing of me. I have been preparing for you for quite some time.”</p><p> </p><p>Maitimo raised an elegant brow. “Oh the images of you playing with yourself, stretching yourself, all for me,” he purred.</p><p> </p><p>“Just for you,” Findekáno breathed into a searching, desperate kiss. They had wanted to feel and be with one another for so many days now but duty had kept them apart and too many eyes were laid upon them. But now they had the privacy they so desired. Findekáno was on his back, letting Maitimo trail kisses along his neck. His fire was burning bright, he felt it deep inside.</p><p> </p><p>Inelegantly they tore off each other’s clothes. Maitimo fumbled with a vial of oil he retrieved from his clothing causing Findekáno to snatch it from him. He doused Maitimo’s fingers with it. “Feel how ready I am.”</p><p> </p><p>Maitimo plunged two fingers into Findekáno, finding him supple, giving way easily to his ministrations. Maitimo moaned into Findekáno’s ear. “To think you were so ready standing next to me all these hours.”</p><p> </p><p>Impatiently Findekáno rubbed Maitimo’s cock and pulled it towards him, raising his legs to sit on Maitimo’s shoulders. “Fuck me now.”</p><p> </p><p>Maitimo answered only with a grunt and allowed himself to penetrate Findekáno.</p><p> </p><p>It was that first sweet sensation of entry, like a tight rubber band expanding, stinging like fire, always matter. Maitimo was trembling. Even though Findekáno was ready he still needed to be gentle. But Findekáno’s was open to him and welcomed Maitimo fully into him. Maitimo softly bit Findekáno’s calf, their love making growing more desperate, deeper into the center of that fire. Maitimo held Findekáno’s cock in his hand, stroking it as he hit that spot deep inside Findekáno that made him beg for mercy.</p><p> </p><p>Fucking between these two was entirely a thing that could be named only that between Findekáno and Maitimo. Their’s was a love unlike others. There was tenderness, but there was also respect and firmness, like steel. Their fucking was quick this time, their arousal building over days until it spilled onto the grounds of the King’s garden, there to sink into soil and be secreted away, giving life to the next generation of grasses that would whisper of forbidden loves in their own stories.</p><p> </p><p>~*~*~*~*</p><p> </p><p>The King’s garden was a respite, a treasured secret place where sound did not escape. It was designed as a place of secrecy and escape for the king and his family. It had a sealing magic and if one of the King’s family so wished it, they could protect their privacy in it for a time. It was irony that deepest in the heart of Tirion’s power, Maitimo and Findekáno broke so much of Noldorin moral codes and laws.</p><p> </p><p>Maitimo and Findekáno laid naked next to each other. Maitimo’s hand rested on Findekáno’s stomach and Findekáno’s hand laid over it.</p><p> </p><p>Findekáno allowed the music from the festivities to seep into their magical kingdom for the night. “I wish to dance with you without a care in the world. Have as witness those things that mean something.”</p><p> </p><p>Maitimo turned lazily to Findekáno. “If not an audience of our peers then who shall be our witness?”</p><p> </p><p>“The disordered things in the world,” Findekáno laughed looking with sweet tenderness upon his lover.</p><p> </p><p>Maitimo shared a concerned look with Findekáno. “But ours is the most natural of things.”</p><p> </p><p>“Perhaps not disordered,” Findekáno corrected himself, looking back up at the expanse of the silver hued sky. “I imagine the other side of the world, what we name wild because it has not been ordered by us or by gods.”</p><p> </p><p>“The other side of the world,” Maitimo breathed. “I can see you there,” Maitimo whispered, “With a garland of luminescent flowers upon your head. You are dancing for me, naked as the day you came into the world. And the world is wide!!!” Maitimo’s emotions choked him up. It was more than emotion. It was foresight.</p><p> </p><p>Findekáno rolled over to his lover, placing a tender kiss upon Maitimo’s soft lips. “Until such an image comes to be I will hold what you conjured closely to my heart.”</p><p> </p><p>Findekáno and Maitimo dressed slowly, taking time to eat what was left of their food and drink their wine. “You know,” Maitimo said, “it is why we do what we do,” speaking of their princely duties,  “because one day we will be more than this.”</p><p> </p><p>“More than this,” Findekáno whispered watching a falling star pierce the silver night.</p><p> </p><p>~*~*~*~*~*~</p><p> </p><p>She watched them dance in faeire land. The lights were of the twinkling stars, the soft sheen of the moon. They turned and pivoted freely, no order telling them where to go, how to dance, and who to dance with. To see their faces, crowns of flowers upon their heads, unguarded, was to see a manifestation of what should have always been, Laica believed: to be free to love as one pleases. She remembered the stratification of the Noldorin society they left behind. She did not miss it. She was made for Endórë. Indeed her Fingon and Maedhros were also made for this place.</p><p> </p><p>Laica thrived in  Endórë. She penned stories of heroes and dragons, rescues from precipitous mountains, and momentous battles. It was only in later days that the stories she penned became those of a hero rescuing his lady, but to read Laica’s stories was to know of Findekáno and Maitimo, of a love that disordered and remade the world, defying what was supposed to be. Their love gave Laica and many generations after them the permission to fully be of themselves and in the world without the internal arrogance of the Noldor. It was how Laica came to be faerie herself, wedded to the spirit of the wood, her children the rivers that flowed from the ice capped mountains, her grandchildren the wild flowers of mountain meadows and on through time, the blade of grass, a worthy ancestor of memory.</p><p> </p><p>~*~*~*~*~*~</p><p> </p><p>“You see,” Laica told Findekáno in later days, long after the great battles. Though reborn, there was a melancholy to Findekáno. “Your smile is more than a smile. It is a gift of that which radiates from within, your connection to Eä, to all that is,” Laica reminded her friend, like a brother to her. She was no longer the innocent girl who watched Findekáno from the edges of society.</p><p> </p><p>Findekáno replied, “Laica, always wise and keen, I too have loved you as my chosen kin. I will always be grateful for what you did for Maedhros and I so, so long ago.”</p><p> </p><p>“And what did I do?” Laica questioned. Findekáno could be oblique at times.</p><p> </p><p>“You were the one who saw our love for what it was, what it is.”</p><p> </p><p>Laica understood. “The space between you.”</p><p> </p><p>“The matter that burns most brightly,” Findekáno breathed. “You will always be the sister that resurrected me to a different understanding. Your words painted possibilities.”</p><p> </p><p>“Possibilities that always existed,” she reminded Findekáno.</p><p> </p><p>“When the day came and the night passed,” a familiar voice echoed from the woods. Findekáno beamed, relishing the sound of his lover’s voice.</p><p> </p><p>Laica witnessed Maitimo materialize into the meadow, wine in hand and food secured in a basket. “Come now, I will not have us falling into exilic nostalgia,” Maitimo chastised Findekáno directly.</p><p> </p><p>“I missed you, is all,” Findekáno said promptly, returning to the work of weaving together flowers into a garland.</p><p> </p><p>Maitimo’s eyes brightened, “I much prefer this crown.”</p><p> </p><p>“Aye,” Findekáno whispered, his world slow and languorous, peaceful and inviting, a dawn into the fullness of Findekáno and Maitimo.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
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